Council candidates currently can live anywhere in the city, and voters select their picks from the whole lot. But that system doesn't allow minority voters to pick their favored candidate, which violates the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), attorney Robert Rubin wrote in a letter to the city last month.

"For at least the last 20 years, no Latino, Asian or African American has been elected to the City Council despite many minority candidates," he wrote.

The CVRA, passed in 2001, calls for agencies found violating it to remedy the situation.

"While a number of options are provided for the City Council's consideration, transitioning to districts is the only one that clearly meets the requirements of the CVRA," Diaz wrote in his staff report.

While the process will be time-consuming and fast-moving to meet the act's tight time requirements, a lawsuit would "likely cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars," Diaz wrote.

Should the council elect to move to districts, it would have to have the new lines drawn and adopted by Jan. 8. Four public hearings would be held between Oct. 16 and Dec. 11, when the council would vote on approving the map and a first reading of the ordinance.

Along with drawing new lines, the council must consider what to do with council members who find themselves living in the same district.

Currently, council members Matt LaVere and Cheryl Heitmann both live in the Pierpont area; Mike Tracy and Christy Weir are both above Ventura High; Jim Monahan and Neal Andrews are in a similar part of east Ventura. Mayor Erik Nasarenko lives north of Foothill Road and east of Victoria Avenue.

The districts would be in place for the November 2018 election, in which Tracy, Monahan, Andrews and Nasarenko are up for re-election.

Also Monday, the council will vote on whether to allow some kind of marijuana businesses in the city. The city staff is recommending the city allow medical marijuana deliveries from between three and five licensed dispensaries.

The city held a marijuana workshop on Sept. 28. that drew around 70 people, the staff report noted. All favored some type of marijuana enterprise.